Warner Bros.
Because nothing can ever remind us of anything ever. In the wake of the Aurora, Colorado tragedy, the movie industry is being forced to make some changes in upcoming films. Gangster Squad is the first to fall. The film, which tells the story of the New York mob trying to muscle into the Los Angeles market, formerly featured a scene where a group of mobsters storm a theater and open up on the audience with machine guns. Even creepier, that scene was in the trailer, which ran in front of The Dark Knight Rises.
The trailer has already been pulled, but now Variety is reporting that the actual scene will be pulled from the final film. That must be tough for a filmmaker to have your baby messed with by forces outside of your control, but there’s definitely a precedent. After the 9/11 attacks, many movies were altered to remove the Twin Towers, including Zoolander and Men In Black II. But how responsible should fiction be for real-world horrors?
Considering that the shooter was identified with the Joker, are acts of violence inspired by movies just a fact of life? Is removing scenes like this going to reduce violence, or just draw attention to the connection? I dunno. I just want to see Gangster Squad the way the director intended.